Teacher at Elkhart Central accused of sex with student

School, police say neighbor alerted them.

School, police say neighbor alerted them.

November 19, 2008|By JEFF PARROTT Tribune Staff Writer

Authorities have charged a former Elkhart Central High School teacher and soccer coach for allegedly having sex with a student. St. Joseph County prosecutors on Tuesday charged Dennis M. Jay, 37, of Mishawaka, with three counts of Class D felony child seduction. The student, a 17-year-old female, admitted to having sexual intercourse with Jay three or four times at his Indian Lakes Apartments home, investigators allege in a probable cause affidavit. A man who lived in a unit above Jay first alerted police about the alleged relationship. The neighbor said he had heard "noises sounding like sexual activity" coming from Jay's apartment, in the late evening hours and overnight, when the girl would visit. He first complained to apartment management, which sent letters to Jay complaining about the noise, according to the affidavit. The neighbor then noticed an Elkhart Central student parking sticker on the girl's vehicle and a student identification card hanging from the rearview mirror. The neighbor called the school, which notified police, said Doug Thorne, the school corporation's director of employee and student relations. Acting on a tip from the neighbor, police went to Jay's apartment on Sept. 2 and found the girl there. When questioned by police, the girl initially admitted to "intimate kissing and hugging" between the two but denied they had sexual intercourse. She said she had been a former student assistant of his, and when she called him over the summer, they said they had missed each other. She said they spent time together about three days a week, and she was in love with him "1000 percent." But during their investigation, detectives obtained copies of text messages sent between Jay and the girl. The messages contained discussions about being checked for sexually transmitted diseases and having unprotected sex, "which she said she did because she truly loves Jay and trusts him completely." When detectives called her in for questioning Oct. 10 and confronted her with the text messages, the girl, accompanied by her father, admitted to the sex, police said. Elkhart Central officials have said they fired Jay on Oct. 14 from his positions as boy's soccer coach and social studies teacher. He had been placed on leave Sept. 3 and ordered by the school's principal not to have any contact with the girl, but he was found to have sent text messages to her later that same day, Thorne said. Staff writer Jeff Parrott: jparrott@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6320